July Counterfeit Kit Challenge member blog hop

Welcome to this month's Counterfeit Kit Challenge member blog hop. Delighted to see you here and hope you will find something here to catch your eye.

You should have arrived here from Dawn's blog and I'm last on the hop this time around. But if you've landed here direct, you can get to the beginning of the hop by going back to the Counterfeit blog. It's a big hop this month so be sure to grab your favourite drink and take some time to get inspired.

Anyway, the challenge this month was to get inspired by one of the Master Forgers - go and spend a few minutes on their blogs and see what you can find - there's so much out there you will be brimming with ideas.

Well, in for a penny, in for a pound, I decided to get inspired by ALL of them! Ever the over achiever, I decided to make a set of cards inspired by each of my fellow forgers - that's a great little set of 10 new cards!

Therefore, let me present to you the Master Forger Collection:

Inspired by......

Angela

I was inspired by this page of Angela's

I loved all those circles and layers and the line of elements going across and they all worked so well with my summery pie charts and happy papers.

Ashley

This page of Ashley's

I loved all those strips of washi/paper behind that main photo element on the page. And Ashley has such a relaxed style that it was difficult to limit myself to just one project.

Dawn

This page of Dawn's

Dawn loves banners. I love banners. This one was a no-brainer! Love those layers and dimension.

Jemma

This card of Jemma's

Jemma teaches me a lot about simplicity and clean design. Her cards had caught my eye as soon as I saw them and I'd pinned them immediately. I was lucky to have some paper I could cut up for these circles making this card a cinch!

Julene

This page of Juneles's

One thing I noticed about Julene's projects was the happy colours and the use of paint and ink with wild abandon. Love me some wild abandon on my projects so I decided to go to town with mists and a spotty mask. I adore this!

Lesley

This page of Lesley's

I've been noticing a lot of projects with elements going right up the middle recently and Leslie's really appealed. I love that big focus photo on there and I thought it was a good way to get one of my journalling cards to shine. It was also a great way to use up some scraps and make a quick and simple card. I'm definitely going to try this design on a page soon.

Leslie

The Puppy Love page of Leslie's

I love the way that Leslie isn't afraid of pattern and colour and ink and twine and stuff! Her pages are always quirky and interesting and has elements I want to try out myself. I loved the placement here of the chevron pattern and the block. Very appealing.

Lynette

This card of Lynette's

Lynette's pages always make me feel like they reflect her personality. They are always sweet and kind and lovely and happy. She is someone I know I'd be friends with in real life as much as I am her online friend. Her Easter card seemed perfect for a bit of mix and match. I love easy designs.

Milissa

This part of Milissa's page

Milissa is another one who is not afraid of layers and colour. When I saw her layered up page elements I knew I wanted to make something similar and load it onto a card. I love the result and incorporation of lots of little elements. This card makes me happy. Milissa strikes me as a happy person. Perfect.

Stephanie

This card of Stephanie's

I found lots of pretty and lots of sparkle on Stephanie's blog and plenty of projects to really inspire. I decided on a simple but funky card with some signature feminine and sequins to sum up the inspiration from her awesome blog. And her output is pretty amazing. What a great addition to the team.


If you've made it this far, well done and don't forget to leave a message to let me know you were here.  I hope you found something to inspire you and if so, don't forget to let us know over at Mr Linky on the Counterfeit blog.

Here's the full list in case you missed anyone!

CKCB    http://www.counterfeitkitchallenge.blogspot.com

Jemma    http://just-jimjams.blogspot.co.uk
Heidi    http://handmade-heidi.blogspot.co.uk
Lesley G    http://ohblogitifyoucantbeatthem.blogspot.co.uk
Chipper    http://hotfudgesundaewithacherryontop.blogspot.com
Leslie    http://lcsmithsaved-outofthemire.blogspot.com
Maggie    http://maggiebscrapblog.blogspot.fr
Ashley    http://paperforpeoplellc.blogspot.com
Kate    http://kateblue.blogspot.com
Lynette    http://sassyscrapper2010.blogspot.com
Milissa    http://millermall.blogspot.com
Elaine    http://chidkids26.blogspot.co.uk
Dawn    http://www.dawnsscrapbookcottage.blogspot.com
Lisa H    http://lisahausmann.blogspot.com

I got creative!

I promised you a brief description of some of the counterfeiting I did for this month's Counterfeit Kit Challenge kit.

Like I said, I'm really lazy most of the time and don't often make the time to really think through how to replicate the items in our inspiration kit that I don't have in my own stash.

But last weekend, I made the most of a small window of time and space (in my brain) and got crafty for some items I really wanted in my kit.

I'll start with the super easy items:

I decided to make the most of some of the thousands of pins I have and find some free printable Project Life/journalling cards etc which could match up a few sheets and packs in the original kit:

Elle's Studio - Day to Day - Tidbits (available here)

Glitz - Color Me Happy - Bits & Pieces (available here)

Fancy Pants - Down By The Shore - title pieces (available here)

While I may not have found perfect matches, I have a hefty pile of stuff which can be tucked here and there and were a fraction of the price of ready bought items - look at this array:

I used these two pins (this and this)

Lots of bright happy colours, cards with space to write, cards with slogans, cards with dates or days, cards with pretty designs - everything you could ask for. And I could have printed out hundreds more as I have so many pins on my printables board (here) and my Project Life board (here). A quick search round the internet will unearth a plethora of freebies. I printed them out onto 160g card in best quality so they are not as thick as regular cardstock and think that will work really well for layering up.

Next up was the pack camera die-cuts.

Maya Road - Say Cheese - camera kraft die cuts (available here)

It just so happens that I have a set of Maya Road stamps with cameras and they are the same design as these even if they are a bit smaller.

So I simply stamped blocks of images in brown and black ink onto kraft cardstock and can cut them out as and when I need them - talk about simple.

Next up was the summer word stickers:

Bazzill Basics - Summer Big Word Stickers (available here)

I created a word document and typed up all the words I thought I might use on my projects and then filled the text box with orange mini polka dots. I think my font size was a bit smaller than the originals but that's the genius with making your own - I made them at the size I think I will use. As I use them, I will cut them out and whip them through my mini-Xyron to turn them into stickers. Again, I used the 160g card and printed them at best quality.

A rather unsuccessful counterfeit were the word stickers:

Jillibean Soup - Wise Words - Happy (available here)

I used my Cricut to try and replicate a few but my word choice was limited and the blade wasn't sharp enough. Better luck next time although I may still be able to use one or two of them. I'm sure many of you out there will have had more success than me so make sure you share :-)

Last up were the chalkboard Thickers. These were the items that really match the idea of creating your own. Here are the originals:

Studio Calico Charcoal Sketchbook Thickers (available here)

I decided to get my very underused Cricut in use for this one. I hear all the time about how it can be used for all sorts of creative ideas and it mostly sits collecting dust for me. So I dusted it off and fished out all 6 (! yes I only have 6!) cartridges to see if I had something suitable for this alpha. I used a scrap of card to try out a few fonts and to check out the sizes to settle on a serif font that I thought was quite simple but chunky enough. I also used this scrap to try out a few white pen options - a Distress marker, a white pencil and a few white gel pens. I seem to have no luck with them at all but there was one (from three) which was still writing relatively smoothly. I saw on the originals that the shape was outlined and then filled in with lines so I practiced that a bit and liked the effect.

Two sheets of black cardstock were then sent through the Cricut and a selection of upper and lower case letters were cut out as well as some numbers and a few ampersands.

Keeping the sheets on the cutting sheet so that the letters stay put, I then got to work with my white pen. In the end, I found that it was easier if I outlined all the shapes first and then filled them in. It took a long time. I mean a loooong time to get all the letters coloured in and they are by no means perfect. But the overall impression is really good (in my opinion).

And I have loads of e's and all the other letters I run out of! I did a few sets of vowels, extra r, s, t and lots of numbers as well as full sets of the whole alpha in both upper and lower. There are way more than in a standard pack of Thickers and even though they took a long time, they cost pennies so all in all, most definitely worth it.

Of course, the proof is in the pudding - as in using them - so watch this space to check if they make an appearance on my layouts!

I spent a very happy afternoon pottering around making all my forgeries (!) and while I don't necessarily want to do that every kit, I am thrilled with the results this time around.

Lynette will share a round up of all our tutorials for this month's kit so if you've come here directly, I would suggest you go over to the Counterfeit Kit Challenge blog and see what the others have made. And don't forget to share with us how you have created your own versions of items in the inspiration kit :-)

Wednesday Wonderland #18

I've been missing from Jingle Belles for a while and decided that I just had to get myself going with this latest prompt or I would miss it completely.

So to make up for missing at least a week (I've lost count) I made a set of six cards for the challenge to go hybrid. This was actually by default as I printed a set of 5 digital images from the net and then cut up cardstock to back them only to realise that I could do a full 6 to use up most of the sheets. Looking at the images there was one I wouldn't use and decided to print off two more. And then it was just a simple design and production-line matting and sticking. Each one had a space for a tiny bit of embellishment so three with ribbons and three with gems finished it all off. Simple!

Ever to jump on a trend, I am loving the chalkboard thing going on right now and when I discovered these images online (here) I knew that they were mine!

Please excuse the poor quality of the photos - I really MUST get that sorted. Not only is the light awful, they are all wonky. Something I need to work on.

So, with July already underway and the downhill slide towards Christmas in the second half of the year officially begun, I can happily say that I have 49 (YES 49!) cards already sitting waiting for me. Insert virtuous feelings here :-)

How are you doing?

Scrapping in more shades of summer

Thanks for dropping by again.

I'd like to share the remaining two layouts I made with Sylvia's wonderful July kit and a simple but pretty card.

Check out my post yesterday (here) to see more and the Scrapabilly kit (here) to find out more about this pretty and easy to use kit.

This layout was inspired by a beautiful layout by Adrienne Alvis over at Studio Calico - check it out here
I'll be doing this again and might lift the rest of the layout too.

I added in the gold mist again (both sprayed and splatted) and a handful of gold sequins seemed the perfect addition to this sunny page.

Love coming back to techniques like the loopy cotton. I very often repeat things over and over for weeks and then just forget for ages. Happy to have remembered this little cluster of thread

Layout number four and here I added in two gold doilies which seemed appropriate for a layout about the over-the-top-gilded Burj Al Arab. I also brushed on some gold mist behind the title to allow the white letters to show up more against the background. Love the look of it - another technique I'll be trying out again soon.

The mini alphas are BasicGrey and originally white. I painted them with the gold mist and was happy to see that they took on a different shade of the gold. 

And one last card which used one of the cut-apart elements for a really simple card just to say hello to someone special. I'm not a cardmaker really so I'm always pleased to find items which basically make the card by themselves.

Thanks for stopping by again. I'll be back on the 8th with some details of the counterfeited items in my July kit, Escape. If you are like me and want to counterfeit but don't want to spend much time or effort, be sure to come and see how I made up several pieces of my kit in a really simple, easy way.

Happy Hump Day everyone!

Scrapping in shades of summer

As promised, I'm here today to share my creations for the Scrapabilly July kit.

When my kit arrived, I was thrilled when I opened the box. Such lovely colours, such pretty designs, great alpha and the die-cuts were perfect for all the projects you could imagine.

Here's the kit (Scrapabilly July kit here):

And here are the first two layouts I created.

It was such a treat to use these colours of which I don't have a lot in my stash - I've been using lots of pink, reds, oranges recently so the switch over to lemons, yellows, limes and greens was so refreshing.

It was interesting to find a way to showcase the pretty brads in the kit. I adore the purple so the butterfly trail on the first layout was a must.

I only added a little mist to one of these layouts in addition to the kit items. And the gold mist you can see (available in the Scrapabilly shop here) is my new fave. I think I've used it on almost everything I've created it since I received it. It's such a wonderful rich gold colour. Watch out for more!

I also made two cards so here is one for you:

This card design is similar to one I've used several times recently but this time I made it with some cut-offs from a layout I will present tomorrow - easy and pretty. Job done!

As I said last month, a good kit in my opinion is very self-contained and doesn't need much added in to make a whole array of different layouts and this is another such a kit. I really loved fishing through my box of products and combining the collection of papers in different ways. And again, I still have a pile of scraps that are good enough for at least one or two layouts.

I used the Distress pen for the first layout and a little on the card here but I need to practice using it more. It was an interesting effect so I will fish out some stamps and give it a go.

Come back again tomorrow for two more layouts and another card.